The Sutler

[Battalion]

What sort of items did the sutler sell?

[ole]

Someone will have a list of the average sutler's stock. Until that shows up, it would be a mixture of useful things and luxuries. He'd have hard candy, tin cups, decks of cards, canned goods -- things that the army didn't supply -- maybe a skillet or coffee pot. Maybe matches and tobacco.

A lot would depend on where he was -- the boys posted in West Tennessee would be a different market than, say those camped outside Washington.

Will be, with you, looking for definitive answers to a very interesting question.

ole

[richard]

Their stock changed all the time. In one journal that I have, it stated that sometimes he sold whiskey if he had it, fresh peaches, apples, sweet potatos along with the usual items such as blankets, tin goods, soap, sometimes stamps, writing paper, fresh butter was one of the high priced goods. There have been accounts that he also brought mail and took mail. So I think that you will find that anything that the army did not provide or was short of, the sutler sold when he could get his hands on it.

[tory_loyalist]

Originally Posted by Battalion

What sort of items did the sutler sell?

At reenactments, the modern sutlers there will tell you that, in their day, they were the take-advantage-of-you type of merchants who followed the army and extorted their hapless captive audience armies for anything they could get... Like charging $5.00 a roll for toilet paper at the Woodstock festival!

Carpetbagger types... Not very well thought of! Scally-wags, of a sort.

Tory

[ole]

Please excuse. I'm operating on my last nerve here. Battalion asked a really interesting question. I didn't have an answer for him, but I figured we'd get a pretty good rush of those who know something about it.

Now. Between you and me and that bedpost over there, I'm not going to trundle a wagon into a war zone if I can't count on a bit of profit -- maybe even doubling my investment. If I can get a dollar for a deck of cards I bought for a nickle. Or if I can get a half dollar for some hard candy that I bought for a penny. Or if I can get a quarter for a tin cup that I bought for a nickle, I'm going to take the chance that I'll have to leave all of that to keep my sacred butt unshot.

It was a legimate question, with an expectation of a legitimate answer. I'lll confess to being a bit chagrined that we haven't yet come up with a discussion of what, exactly, a sutler might have peddled.

Richard made a good shot at the question, and it was largely what I was thinking about. But someone out there knows very well what the sutler peddled. Him, or her, is who I want to hear from and, I'm guessing here, is what Battalion asked for. I can do without the off-side skallywagger pecksniffian diversion.

The question was, what did the sutler sell? If we keep it there, I will sleep well. If we do not, I get grumpy when I do not sleep well.

Wish I could be of more help, Battalion, but I have no clue and must fall back on the more learned membership.

ole

[30th_il]

I am pretty sure Richard was right. The sutler sold anything he could to make money. I have read most often about soldiers buying writing and mailing supplies, ID tags (forerunner of the dog-tag), toothpowder (paste), food items (when foraging parties came up with little or no food) and it was mostly because they couldn't look at another piece of hardtack much less eat it. I've read of playing cards and dice being bought, folding knives, and mirrors. The soldiers pretty much all complained of the high cost of these items. One soldier in the 30th IL was happy while at Lake Providence, LA that there oysters were plenty so they didn't have to be victims of the sutler and his charges though he did mention in a letter entry the boys had to now pay a high price for soap since they were all taking a swim/bath every other day now.
Pretty much I'd say the sutler was an entrepreneur and opportunist that sold most anything that would realize those two terms.

[larry_cockerham]

After Ole's instructions, I'd be scared to mention Gen. Hooker.

[blue_zouave]

Here are a couple of websites that might help:

http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues..._exchange.html

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/f...606&forum_id=8

In the local history museum in Chattanooga, there was a list of goods and suggested prices that was published in a Chattanooga newspaper in early 1864. I Emailed and asked for a copy, but unfortunately never got one. I remember items like coats, hats, and gloves, as well as smaller items such as tobacco and patent medicine.

As for the carpetbagger/scallawag comment, nobody held those soldiers down and forced them to buy from the sutlers. Just like today, when nobody holds people down and makes them watch QVC!!

Zou

[gary]

Food. You could buy whatever fruit or meats he brought along. Pickles, canned goods, writing paper, envelopes, stamps, eating utensils, whiskey (though sometimes prohibited), clothing, toiletry (soap, razors, pocket mirrors), medicine (some quite suspicious) and other dry goods. You didn't even have to have money and he would present a bill to the paymaster who would pay him first before you received your monthly pay.

Of course, when sutlers outraged the soldiers, it was Rally! Boys, rally!

[ole]

Of course, when sutlers outraged the soldiers, it was Rally! Boys, rally!

Now that is an observation worth noting. Of course the subtler was there to squeeze whatever he could get out of the soldier. At what point would he squeeze too hard? I'm guessing that the looting and wrecking of a sutler's wagon wouldn't be of much concern to the Captain of a Company or the Colonel of a Regiment.

He'd be there very much with the permission of his customers. I'd guess that he could get an outrageous price for a small jar of marmalade simply because getting one in any other way would be quite impossible. (But how much is too much?)

ole